Diwakar can barely hide his excitement about the kind of things waiting to happen in "his Varanasi" in a matter of months. Fresh from evening darshan at the Lord Shiva temple inside the campus, the post-graduate student of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) authoritatively talks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi makeover agenda - some already announced and some about to be announced soon.
The self-confessed Modi bhakt's 'to do' and 'has been done' lists are really long. The latter includes 24x7 Wi-Fi connectivity at two of the important Ganga ghats, a trade facilitation centre to help weavers, the complete makeover of the railway station and the 15.3-km new ring road connecting national highways 56 and 29 on the outskirts of the city. And the to-do list includes almost everything a modern city should have. He says he has prepared the lists on the basis of what he has read in the local media and what he has gathered from like-minded people.
Reasons to be hopeful
|
Diwakar is one of many local residents who have been getting a daily dose of hope and hype ever since Narendra Modi won the Lok Sabha election from Varanasi. The hope gets accentuated in weeks preceding and followed by the prime minister's visit to his constituency. And, the hope gets renewed whenever some celebrity tours the city. There is already some speculation about proposed investment of Reliance Industries' after Nita Ambani's birthday bash in the city, almost a month ago. While some people say Reliance is set to adopt some ghats, some others say Varanasi is going to be the first city for Reliance's proposed 4G network launch.
All this hope, some real and many others based on hearsay, has led to unprecedented soaring of land prices in and around the city. Whether in Varanasi-bound trains or at local tea shops, most of the discussion begins and ends with how investing in land is the wisest thing to do in the PM's Lok Sabha constituency. In the Varanasi-bound train Shiv Ganga express, an elderly gentleman was explaining to fellow travellers, this reporter included, the virtues of investing in land now. The gist of what he said was: "Prices of land in and around Varanasi have doubled in the past six months on mere hope of things to come. Once the city makeover plan takes a concrete shape, which is expected in the next two years, imagine the kind of returns one can expect."
The gentleman was not way off the mark when it comes to describing what has happened in less than six months. "There is no denying that land prices have doubled in most areas in the past six months. The rise has been rather steep in the outskirts, especially around the proposed new ring road and near airport at Babatpur," says Arun Kumar Singh, managing director of Kharaunjha Builders. Singh happens to be one of the first local builders who developed a township in the posh Mahmoorganj locality in 1980.
Based on estimates given by various stakeholders, land prices have risen from an average of Rs 5,000 per square foot in the Mahmoorganj locality six months ago to nearly Rs 10,000 now. In Ravindra Puri colony, the prices have increased from an average of Rs 10,000 per square foot to nearly Rs 18,000 in the same period. The PM's parliamentary constituency office is situated in the same locality.
The rise has been steepest in areas like Babatpur, Rohania, Raja Talab and Ramnagar. All these places are 15 to 20 km away from the city. A plot of land measuring 1,365 square feet (in local parlance a biswa) was available in the range of Rs 2-3 lakh six months ago. The asking rate now has gone up to Rs 15 to 20 lakh. "I see a number of outsiders on Innova surveying land parcels in these areas every Sunday," a local journalist told this reporter. "I get a lot of enquiries from businessmen from Mumbai and Gujarat about land prices on the outskirts. They send their representatives, too, to survey these areas. The unprecedented rise in land prices is perhaps a result of that," observes Singh. The local registration office, as a result, collected nearly 32 per cent more revenue in the first four months (April to August) of this financial year compared to the last year.
Fuelling Varanasi's hope, of which a steep rise in land prices is just one manifestation, are occasional announcements from large companies to do their bit in the PM's constituency. According to district officials, companies like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, GAIL and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation have evinced interest in building parts of city's infrastructure from their corporate social responsibility corpus. While some are set to adopt the ghats, some others are going to engage in beautification of parks. Amul, too, is in the process of setting up a milk processing unit on the city outskirts. And, the work on a new ring road is set to begin in April 2015 and the work to be completed by 2017.
"Once the new ring road becomes operational, it is going to ease congestion in the city," District Magistrate (DM) Pranjal Yadav told Business Standard. He said two more issues needed urgent attention. "We need permission to build tourism-oriented government projects near the (river) bank," he said. Currently, all new constructions within 200 m of the river bank are banned. He also wants desilting of river Ganga to be done forthwith as it has not happened for the past 25 years. The DM, himself a trained mechanical engineer from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, feels any further delay on this count might endanger the ghats. And the process of desilting can start only after the national wildlife sanctuary situated near the ghats is shifted.
Other than planned projects, big or small, what is driving Varanasi's hope further is the existence of the PM's parliamentary constituency office in the heart of the city. Manned by seven people, the office remains open for visitors from 9 am to 5 pm every day, except on Sunday. "We get, on an average 10-15, complaints and suggestions every day. We ensure they are taken seriously," said the PM's parliamentary constituency office secretary, Shiv Sharan Pathak. The PM himself heard problems of 15 people when he was in the city last month.
"This office came into existence on August 20. The general feeling among the people after this office became operational is that now they have a direct connect with the Prime Minister's Office. It has given the people here immense confidence," a local journalist remarked. He did not wish to be named.
